Transcript Factories and the Work Force

Factories and the Work Force
► Between
1860 – 1900 numbers of industrial
workers increased from 885,000 to 3.2
million (trend toward large scale
production).
From Workshop to Factory
► Shoemakers
in 1840’s worked in family
atmosphere
► 1880’s – shoe factories became larger and
more mechanized (less personal)
The Hardships of Industrial Labor
► 1880’s
expansion of factory system caused high
demand for unskilled labor
► Contract system – to avoid problems of hiring,
managing, and firing their own workers large co.
negotiated agreements with a subcontractor who
supervised the services of unskilled laborers.
 Construction trades
 Machine and tool industries
 Garment making
The Hardships of Industrial Labor
► Unskilled
and skilled workers
 Worked 12 hour shifts
 Faced grave hazards to their health and safety
► Children
or 9.
typically entered the mill at age 8
 Faced same dangers as adults, but injured more
often, because of pranks and play
 Supervision was lax
The Hardships of Industrial Labor
► Children
and adults fell subject to black lung
in the coal mills and brown lung in the
textile mills.
► 1889 – 1st year that the ICC compiled
reliable records
 Almost 2,000 rail workers were killed on the job
 More than 20,000 were injured
 Receiving minimal financial aid from the
employer, if any.
 For medical benefits, workers joined fraternal
organizations and ethnic clubs paying dues
Immigrant Labor
► Factory
owners turned to immigrant workers
 Muscle jobs in factories, mills, railroads, and
heavy construction
 Most often new immigrants took lowest level
jobs replacing prior immigrants places
►Ex.
Philadelphia Amer. & Germans worked in metal
working trades. Irish worked unskilled horse carting
until new immigrants from Southern Europe took
their place.
Immigrant Labor
► West
Coast – Chinese immigrants took
dirtiest jobs
 Mining, canning, and RR construction
► “Wherever
the heat is most insupportable,
the flames most scorching, the smoke and
soot most choking, there we are certain to
find compatriots bent and wasted in toil,”
► Immigrants could save $15 a month – far
more than they could have earned in their
homeland
Immigrant Labor
► Cultural
changes were hard for immigrant
 Work schedules were hard
► Employers
used a temperance societies and
Sunday schools to teach punctuality and
sobriety to immigrant worker who resisted
the tempo of factory work.
Immigrant Labor
► “Whiteness”
in the U.S. bestowed a sense of
privilege and the automatic extension of the
rights of citizenship
 Irish, Greek, Italian, Jewish, and others were
Caucasian by race but by skin color considered
non-white receiving harsh treatment
Women and Work in Industrial
America
► Women’s
work experiences, like men’s, were
shaped by marital status, social class, and
race
► White married women accepted – “separate
spheres” – remained at home, raise
children, took care of the household
► Well to do had maids to ease the load
Women and Work in Industrial
America
► Working
class did not have maids and even
worked at home to earn extra money
► Cigar manufacturers would by a tenement
and require the families that lived there to
work there.
► Clothing industries would hire out finishing
tasks to lower class married women and
their children.
Women and Work in Industrial
America
► Young
working class single women often
viewed factory work as an opportunity.
► 1870, 13% of all women worked outside the
home, the majority as cooks, maids,
cleaning ladies, and laundresses.
► Disliked low pay, long hours, and being
“servant”.
Women and Work in Industrial
America
► Women
went to work in textile, foodprocessing, and garment industries.
► Discrimination barred black women from
these jobs
► 1870-1900 – # of all women (all races) in
the work force tripled by 1900.
► 17% of the work total force was women
Women and Work in Industrial
America
► Factory
owners treated women as
temporary help, (feared they would leave to
marry) therefore wages were kept low.
► Not making enough money to live on their
own, working enmeshed young women
more deeply into the family instead of
making them more independent.
Women and Work in Industrial
America
► Typewriter
and telephone offered new
opportunities in 1890’s.
► High school educated women moved to
clerical work.
► 1890, 10% of the Nation’s families owned
73% of the wealth.
► Less than half of industrial laborers earned
more than the five-hundred dollar poverty
line annually.